Time For A Trim

I felt a little ambitious so I attacked a little trimming of the oak tree. I removed a big limb (about 6" diameter) that hangs down to the roof of our sun room. Of course, the trick is not dropping the limb trough the roof so a little forethought prevented that. Strategic trimming from the limb and the use of a rope did the trick. The result though, was a big pile of debris that had to fit into the compost barrels. I started that task after the garbage man had picked up the previous efforts from last week. I've been filling the barrels with the wisteria trimmings. The oak tree was a little off track. There is still a little bit more wisteria to trim but with the storms happening recently, I switched to the oak tree. I packed about half the debris into a barrel and called it a day. Tomorrow, the other barrel. There is more trimming to do to the oak tree as well but I've been trying to only trim what will fit into the barrels, so another day. I may also get another toy, a pole chain saw to complete the trimming. The 20 foot ladder I used for this recent trimming is a little too high for this old man.

I'm even thinking of removing an entire 18" diameter limb that hangs over the house and causes the tree to lean toward the house. I'll be examining that possibility more. I don't want to ruin the tree so I'll want to maintain a balance. Then there is the fact that that would require many weeks of barrel filling. It would yield a few cords of fire wood though. I'll do a lot more thinking!